January 09, 2012

Alabama Wins BCS: The Alabama Crimson Tide, led by five Jeremy Shelley field goals and a smothering defense that held the LSU Tigers scoreless, won the BCS Championship Game 21-0 Monday night. Trent Richardson scored on a 34-yard run in the fourth quarter to seal the victory. Alabama wins its second college football title in three years under head coach Nick Saban.

Musberger was awful. It was pretty obvious that he wanted it to be a better game. At one point he said something to the effect of "Alabama's defense is starting to struggle" Yeah, if giving up 13 yards on a 6 play drive is struggling, I guess so.

Glad it wasn't a close game, and really glad that they are going to do away with the current system.

Still find it humorous that they just can't come to actually say the word "playoff". Stop this "4 +1" nonsense. It's a 4 team playoff. Which is better than what we have now, but is at least 4 teams short of what it should be. 8 teams would mean 4 teams play 1 more game, and only 2 play 2 more games than they do now. I think they can handle it.

I didn't think that this game could possibly be more boring than the first matchup. Unfortunately, I was wrong.

I still can't figure out why Miles didn't bench Jefferson in the 3rd quarter and try his luck with their other quarterback. At some point he had to realize nothing he was trying with the players he had on the field was working. A shakeup might have done them some good (doubtful though, considering Alabama was absolutely dominant on defense all night).

I didn't see a dominant defense, and it's a tragedy that that's exactly how this game will be remembered. I saw two inept offenses, one of which got slightly luckier than the other. The SEC is incredibly lucky that they managed to game the voters into the Incest Bowl, because neither team would have done well last night against a receiver like Blackmon, a quarterback like Luck or a team like Boise.

I'll agree that Alabama and LSU were each capable of beating any team in the country this season. But neither of the versions that showed up last night would have.

Alabama kept LSU from crossing the 50 until the middle of the fourth quarter and held the Tigers to 92 yards total offense. LSU wasn't inept. It was completely shut down, particularly in the running game.

A.J. McCarron passed for 234 yards and the Tide had 384 total yards offense. That's not inept.

I've heard that from Oregon before, too. Oh wait.

I was thinking the same thing. The SEC has won six BCS titles in a row for a reason. The defenses are devastatingly fast and strong at the line.

I'd love to see regional ratings and how many people outside of the South stayed with it.

Game was memorable, jut not in the right ways; Musberger was awful and kept trying to sell us on how big a deal this was (the moment where they were breaking down the INT from the first game to me was an awkward cry for help from the production team), LSU's offense was horrendous (and probably would have been no matter what).

"But imagine if Alabama and LSU had never met a first time. Imagine if the 11-1 Tide had faced a 13-0 team from another conference on the season's final night, with the exact same result.

Imagine how dazzled we'd be by the clinic that took place.

The Tigers were 13-0. They'd beaten three teams that finished in the Top 10 of the final polls. They averaged 40.1 points against their 12 opponents not named Alabama. The Tide shut them out. LSU had averaged 215.2 rushing yards per game. Alabama held the Tigers to 39 yards on the ground and 92 total."

I really, really dislike Alabama for irrational reasons related to really, really disliking Saban. BUT, that aside, when I looked away from the ball and watched the rest of the field, the Tide were simply amazing. I seriously doubt Oklahoma State or Oregon or anyone could've moved the ball against them last night.

It reminded me, in a sad way, of my Hawkeyes beating Georgia Tech a couple of years ago. The Hawks were totally prepared and a bit faster, and Tech had no Plan B. Sad because I recognize that what I watched last night was defense-first football on a vastly higher level.

So, props to the Tide, begrudgingly, and to the SEC, where they're better at football.

I'm surprised Jefferson didn't get a cheap shot after that vicious tackle on linebacker C.J. Mosley following his interception. Mosley's knee blew up and he could be out a long time. One of the Tide defenders was visibly enraged after the play.

Alabama's defense was beastly for sure, but as an LSU fan, I was pretty disappointed with LSU's offensive play calling. I do not think the coaches put the offense in a position to succeed, and it just seems like they did not adapt the game plan at all once it was clear that certain things just were not going to work. Jarret Lee probably should have been put into the game at some point in the third quarter. At least LSU will have a decent passing QB next year and in years after (they have Zach Mettenberger ready to start next year and the number one pro-style high school QB, Gunner Kiel (great name for a QB, by the way) coming in to next year's class as well).

With the players they are returning, LSU is set up very well for next year. Next year was always supposed to be "the year" for them in any event (as they had a ton of freshmen and sophomores starters and in their two-deep on both sides of the ball this year), but it does not make last night's loss, after a pretty historic regular season (in which they beat the Pac-12 Champs, Big East Champs and eventual BCS Champs and ran the slate in the SEC), any easier to swallow.

On that tackle, I will say it is not the way one would typically expect to be tackled (in terms of where he got him and then the way the leverage was applied), but, then again, quarterbacks are not exactly known to be form tacklers.

""But imagine if Alabama and LSU had never met a first time. Imagine if the 11-1 Tide had faced a 13-0 team from another conference on the season's final night, with the exact same result.

Imagine how dazzled we'd be by the clinic that took place."

warning : unfounded opinion ahead

I'm someone who hadn't seen the first game because I don't watch college football. I tuned into the final last night because it was on and my sports osmosis told me that LSU was undefeated and so it was a chance to see Nick Saban metaphorically punched in the face - as a Dolphins fan this is something I will always tune in for.

So I'm pretty close to living in Mandel's imaginary universe and mostly what I thought was how entirely dreadful LSU's Quarterback looked. I'm with Holden - the best thing he did all night was that tackle.

You can have good defenders take away your receivers and blow up your blocking schemes, but even beyond that on a very fundamental level LSU were terrible. On pretty much any of the option runs the QB flipped the ball so early that the man that was moving toward him was able to change direction and hit the back before he got even a yard upfield.

Surely that's "Option 101" right there - make your man absolutely commit and then do the other thing.

Whoever that QB is, he's never going to be the next NFL media darling if he can't run the option!

Speaking of media darlings, some folks here no doubt saw the story of top recruit Landon Collins announcement of his intention to sign with Alabama over LSU.

His mother, an LSU fan, called him out on camera for making the wrong choice right after he made his announcement. What a classy lady. Last night's game likely didn't change her mind. Probably made things worse for Collins at home, if anything.

Collins is smart. He's the top rated DB in the land, and who better to learn the position from than Saban, the master of the defensive backfield?

ESPN spent a lot of time today talking about the wonderful defensive display, but you have to think they're pretty upset behind the scenes. While LSU & Alabama were #1 and #2, it seems like good TV business to make sure the championship is between teams from two different conferences.

Then again, it seems like great TV business to just have a playoff system. And not hold the championship so late.

While LSU & Alabama were #1 and #2, it seems like good TV business to make sure the championship is between teams from two different conferences.

I'm a Gator fan and an SEC fan and I totally agree. By default, I'll typically just root for a team from the SEC. Last night, without any rooting interest and the game being a bore, I just quit watching. I'd rather have watched an SEC team pound a team from a different conference again.